Håkon Thelin is one of Norway’s most innovative bass players. He balances his work between performing, composing and teaching – as a soloist and ensemble musician with, among others, POING and folk singer Unni Løvlid and as a teacher of contemporary music and improvisation at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He tours across large parts of the world, and collaborates with ensembles such as Ensemble Modern and Musikfabrik.

The CD Folk is the continuation of a project that started with Thelin’s previous solo album Light (winner of a Norwegian Grammy in 2012), where he reflects on a musical language which he calls a folk music for the double bass. On Folk, the framework consists of three new virtuoso works by Thelin that reflect the timbre, texture and technique of flamenco music: “In 2011 I collaborated with the Spanish composer Mauricio Sotelo and several amazing flamenco musicians. It inspired me to write several works where I explore some very complex traditional rhythmic and melodic concepts that have been recomposed into my own sound world on the double bass.”

The other works on the CD are composed by Luciano Berio, Lars-Petter Hagen and Stefano Scodanibbio. Luciano Berio’s monumental Sequenza XIVb, in Stefano Scodanibbio’s reinvented version for bass, has musical references to flamenco music as well as drumming traditions of Sri Lanka. The Sequenza is one of the highlights within the contemporary repertoire for bass. Lars-Petter Hagen wrote Hymn as a listening-tune for bass, in what he describes as non-existent folk music for an enormous, fictitious fiddle. Geografia amorosa by Stefano Scodanibbio explores the rhythmic and percussive possibilities of the double bass, which “in this terrain proves to be a “magical instrument”, in that it unites the achievements of the tradition of music for string instruments with the innovations, the disturbances, the openings (or ’openness’) of improvised music outside of the settlements of high culture” (Stefano Scodanibbio).

The music on Folk is coupled with texts written and read by Ottar Kåsa, Ingfrid Breie Nyhus, Unni Løvlid, Sarah Ludwig Simkin and Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen. The texts reflect upon the identity of the music, musician and instrument, its tradition and future, and sometimes providing deeply personal artistic associations with these.
The album cover is an artwork in itself: created exclusively for this release by Norwegian painter Helge Røed. Folk is Thelin’s third album release on Atterklang.

Espen Berg (piano), Bárdur Reinert Poulsen (bass) and Simon Olderskog Albertsen (drums) adds up to the trio which plays Berg’s intricate and dynamic compositions. Since spring 2014 EBT has toured on the Faroe Islands, released the album «Mønster» on the Japanese label Blue Gleam, and played at some of the biggest jazz festivals in Norway. The trio is chosen to participate in the European Talent Program and will soon do release tours both in Asia and Norway.

The music of Espen Berg Trio blends the American and the Nordic jazz traditions, and is presented with elegance, virtuosity, tight and communicative interplay, and lots of smiles. Espen Berg from Hamar, Norway lives in Trondheim where he gained a master’s degree in 2008 at Trondheim university’s highly acclaimed jazz department. Espen has been touring around the world with the trio Listen, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Marius Neset, and his own solo project. He has worked with artists such as Per Jørgensen, Anders Jormin, Hildegunn Øiseth, Mathias Eick, Cantus, Tore Johansen, Eirik Hegdal, Mats Eilertsen, Susanne Lindeng, Arve Henriksen, Jovan Pavlovic, Maher Mahmoud and many more. Espen has been awarded with several international prizes as the best soloist at Hoellaart Int´l Jazz Contest 2007 in Belgium. He also currently works at the jazz department at NTNU.

Bárdur Reinert Poulsen was born in Tórshavn in, Faroe Islands. He moved to Trondheim and earned his bachelor´s degree in 2014 at NTNU. He plays in many pop and jazz groups, among them The Fjords, Fieldfare and Wako, as well as with the Faroese Symphony Orchestra and with his own sextet Swenofon. In 2015 he will be releasing several albums. Bár›ur has played concerts in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, USA, Bulgaria, Poland, France, Germany and Kenya, as well as doing session work in Tórshavn and Trondheim,

Simon Olderskog Albertsen, from Stjørdal, Norway, also studied at Trondheim´s university´s acknowledged jazz department. He´s active playing in several jazz groups both within and outside Trondheim. He also works with folk music, pop and at Trøndelag theatre. He released the album “War Wounds” together with the English singer-songwriter Mark Gregory in November 2013, and “Adeln” in February 2013 together with the equally named Swedish folk/jazz group.